When Dan had arrived home that afternoon, he’d been furious to find her up the ladder, cleaning out the gutters. He’d been planning to get to that job this weekend and she knew it. But instead of waiting for him to get around to it, Mari had decided to deliberately disobey them and take matters into her own hands.
Mari was scared of heights; she got dizzy and light-headed when she was a few meters in the air. Early on in their relationship, he and Jake had set a rule that she was not to climb ladders or trees or anything higher than a meter up. And she knew what would be the consequence of disobeying that or any of the rules they’d given her.
A very sore, red bottom.
So when Dan had found her clearly disobeying him, he’d yanked her down off the ladder, marched her inside and put her over his lap for a well-deserved spanking.
She had no one to blame but herself.
And yet his guilt still raged.
He didn’t like hurting her. But he knew she needed their discipline. She needed to know that someone was going to hold her accountable for her behavior.
Before they’d met Mari she’d been on a self-destructive path. Alcohol, late nights, partying, reckless driving. They’d helped her clean up, steered her on the right path.
Now, she was under some very strict, but loving guidance. She knew the rules well. He and his brother weren’t jerks; they didn’t set her up to fail. The rules they set for her weren’t to restrict or control her. They were there to keep her safe.
Mari knew she wasn’t to climb any ladders, just as she knew they wouldn’t tolerate her speeding or leaving the house without a charged cell phone. Dan knew other people would think them controlling, but Mari thrived on structure and rules and he and Jake needed to know she was safe. Following her rules would hopefully keep her that way. Most of them were common courtesy anyway.
Jake and Dan believed that breaking the rules should have consequences. And that those consequences should be a sore bottom, or having to stand in the corner, or a cleaning out—either her mouth if it was potty, or her bottom if she became disrespectful.
“She's been sleeping badly lately,” Jake said, his own face screwing up in concern as Mari continued to sniffle and cry. “She needs to take a nap, I'd say.”
Mari stiffened in his arms but didn't protest. Very strange indeed. He raised an eyebrow at Jake. Maybe she was simply exhausted. She did tend to get tearful and become more childlike when tired. Never to this extreme though.
“You heard him, baby girl. Nap time.” Dan stood, Mari held in his arms.
“Damn it, it feels like she's lost weight.” Now he was really getting concerned. She couldn’t afford to get any thinner. She was already under strict instructions from her doctor to gain weight.
Dan looked down into her face, so beautiful to him, even when her eyes were swollen with tears, her cheeks blotchy with her crying. Her large, green eyes swam with tears. Her tiny little nose, which was upturned at the end, was red with her crying and her fu
ll lips trembled, holding back her sobs. Her short, dark hair lay messily around her head; it was lacking its usual shine and bounce.
Dan noticed how pale she was. Her skin was almost translucent and it was pulled tightly across her face, her cheekbones sticking out sharply. How had he not noticed her growing thinner?
He and Jake had been busy at work, but still, he should have been paying close attention to their wife. She came first.
No matter what.
Jake stared down at her. “Have you been eating properly, Mari?” he asked.
She was silent, a sure sign of guilt.
With a soft growl, Jake left the room. When he returned, he held her food diary in his hand, his forehead puckered as he read it. In an effort to help her gain weight, because they were so worried about her health, Jake and Dan had set up a food diary for her. Each night, Mari was required to write down what she’d eaten during the day. They often asked to see it and if they thought she was eating too little or not enough of the right sort of foods, they’d sit down and see what they could do to help her.
Neither of them spanked her if she’d fallen short of what they expected. They didn’t want the food diary or eating to be seen as punishment in any way. However, filling in the diary incorrectly or forgetting to fill it in was a very serious offense.
The one and only time she’d fudged things in her diary, she’d been punished so severely that Dan fervently hoped she would never do it again. Because he didn’t think he could stand to be so harsh with her a second time.
“It all looks okay,” Jake said. “Weigh her before you put her down, though.”
“You wouldn't be lying to us in your diary would you, Mari-girl?” Dan asked. “Putting things in that you didn't actually eat?”
“No,” she said quietly. “I wouldn’t do that. Not after last time.”
Jake stared at her then looked at her diary. “Did you eat all of this? Or just a few bites?” he asked.
She sighed, her face terribly sad. “I haven't been very hungry,” she explained.